Chapter 1056 Dassault's Thoughts

It was not until this time that Liu Yongquan realized that the two people's brain waves were completely out of sync.

What Ed Steiner was talking about happened during the Iran-Iraq War in the 80s.

At that time, both sides were engaged in a missile ship attack war, hoping to gain a war advantage by strangling the other's oil exports.

But anyone who takes a look at the map will see that in this struggle, Persia, which occupies almost the entire eastern coast of the Persian Gulf, has a huge advantage.

They only need to deploy land-based anti-ship missiles or even coastal artillery on the coast to block the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point.

The other side, located in the deepest part of the bay, needs to dispatch the air force for a long-range raid to achieve the same attack effect.

Even though they had the support of the entire Western world, war resources, especially anti-ship missile carriers, were still stretched thin.

At that time, the main model used for ship-raiding warfare was the Mirage F1, which could only carry one Exocet missile on its belly each time it was deployed. It often took a two- or even four-plane formation to completely sink an oil tanker.

Such a large-scale attack is easy to be discovered, and then be intercepted by the enemy...

In short, in order to improve strike efficiency and concealment, they experimentally converted a Falcon 50 business jet into an anti-ship missile carrier.

Not only is its bomb load doubled compared to the Mirage F1, but its radar signal characteristics are also almost the same as those of a normal small passenger plane.

Even if the other party has some suspicions, they may not dare to open fire on a suspected "civilian target".

All in all, the plan seemed to go perfectly.

As for the results...

Indeed, we have achieved brilliant results.

The problem is, it's too brilliant.

The first time the aircraft was deployed, it fired two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark, a US Navy frigate escorting in the Persian Gulf, and both missiles hit the target...

It can only be said that American warships are more reliable than British warships after all, and the krypton gold damage control during World War II had not yet expired. After being hit by two Exocet shells, the USS Stark managed to survive without sinking, but in the end 37 people died and the Stark was also severely damaged.

The whole process was full of blunders, which really made for a great show.

Liu Yongquan finally bit his tongue hard to control himself from laughing out loud.

Really, I think of happy things.

However, looking at Liu Yongquan who was hiding his face to hold back his laughter, Edelsteiner couldn't hold it in anymore and looked a little annoyed:

"What's so funny about that?"

Opinions vary as to whether the attack was intentional.

But there is no doubt that this incident brought considerable fame to the Falcon series of business jets, which were still in the early stages of development at the time.

However, it is not necessarily a good reputation.

The entire modification process was carried out by Dassault.

Using civil aviation identities to cover up military missions is itself a very sensitive topic.

That was back in the 80s, when everyone was generally wild.

It's the 21st century now. If we continue to do this, we will probably be drowned in spit.

The reputation of Falcon 8Z is no longer necessary.

For Ed Steiner, this was naturally an absolutely unacceptable result.

"Uh... no, you misunderstood."

Liu Yongquan gently pinched the side of his face to restore the facial muscles that were somewhat stiff from trying not to laugh:

"My superiors mean to use the Falcon 8Z as a platform to develop a series of special aircraft, such as... early warning aircraft."

After a brief pause, he continued to explain:

"You know, although this deterrent action did not encounter much resistance, it did cause some deterrence to many countries... especially those in the Gulf region."

"The coalition forces deployed nearly 50 early warning aircraft to command 2000 to 3000 combat flights per day, shortening the formation time of the discovery-strike chain from one and a half hours during Desert Storm to less than minutes, and significantly reducing the probability of misfires."

"So after this war, the international community, especially some wealthy small and medium-sized countries, will likely set off a wave of buying early warning aircraft. If we can seize this opportunity, it will be a market with great potential..."

"..."

Ed Steiner now realized that he had made a big mistake and scratched his head in embarrassment.

Fortunately, the other party's proposal was quite attractive and quickly attracted attention.

"AWACS..."

He looked at the Falcon 8Z parked less than ten meters away and blurted out subconsciously:

“Isn’t it a bit too small?”

Falcon 8Z is actually the Z9 plan in the original Falcon project, but it was renamed 9Z because the number 8 is unlucky in some cultures.

Although it is the largest model in the portfolio, it is still a business jet after all, and is not even as good as a regional airliner.

The maximum take-off weight of less than 40 tons seems a bit underwhelming among today's early warning aircraft.

But as soon as he said this, Ed Steiner realized that something was wrong.

The Swedish Saab 340 has a take-off weight of only 15 tons, but it can still be converted into an ASC-890 early warning aircraft.

Although the range is close to three digits and it only has airborne radar functions, command and control need to be downlinked to the ground station for operation.

Although Liu Yongquan on the opposite side did not fully guess what he was thinking, it was not difficult to see that the so-called board discussion was just an excuse to delay time.

Of course, we are all decent people and we see the truth but don’t say it out loud.

He just secretly kept the situation in mind and planned to go back and ask Mr. Chang if he had any countermeasures...